Raul Meza was apprehended by authorities in connection with the murders of a lady in Austin in 2019 and an 80-year-old man in Pflugerville in May 2023. The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force and Austin Police refer to Raul Meza as a “serial killer.”
Murderer Raul Meza, 62, has a history of killing people; in 1982, he was arrested for the killing of Kendra Page.
Investigators have said that he might be behind a number of homicides.
Meza’s criminal past began when he was 15 years old, when he was detained for injuring a store employee during a robbery at a convenience store.
Raul Meza Jr., at 15 years old, was one of a group of people who robbed an Austin convenience store on New Year’s Eve in 1975.
During the incident, the culprits took the store manager to a walk-in refrigerator and shot him in the back before abandoning him there.
Thankfully, the manager recovered from the gunshot wound and later provided testimony at Meza’s trial.
Authorities gave Meza a 20-year penalty after finding out about his involvement in the robbery. Nevertheless, he barely completed five years of his sentence before being granted parole and released.
Tragically, officials detained him once more in connection with the murder of Kendra Page less than ten years later, while he was still on parole for the aggravated robbery.
On January 3, 1982, her lifeless body was found in a trash can at an elementary school in southeast Austin.
The terrible murder of 8-year-old Kendra Page shocked the Austin community and made parents more watchful and circumspect.
They stopped letting their kids walk to school, and worried neighbours flocked to neighbourhood meetings in droves to discuss how to make their kids’ safety better.
Meza was given a 30-year prison term after being found guilty of killing Kendra Page.
He did, however, only serve 11 years before obtaining release in 1993.
It’s crucial to remember that Meza was found guilty of murder but not of rape as part of his plea deal.
Although the Page family classified him as a s*x offender, a judge found that this classification was constitutionally questionable.
Due to the lack of a conviction for a s*x crime, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals made it clear that Meza could not be labelled as a s*x offender or forced to register as one.
Kendra Page’s terrible death had a horrifying effect that went beyond her immediate family and left the Austin neighbourhood forever scarred.
Kendra’s sister, Tracy Page, disclosed that Raul Meza Jr. kidnapped Kendra soon after the Christmas break.
He raped her, strangled her, and ultimately killed her during this horrible occurrence.
However, in a contentious turn of events, Meza was given an early release from prison in 1993 as a result of his excellent behaviour while he was there, nearly 11 years later.
Meza was initially transferred to a halfway house close to El Paso after being granted parole.
However, officials chose to relocate him somewhere as a result of vocal local opposition.
Nearly a dozen cities experienced this pattern of protests and subsequent moves, demonstrating the widespread opposition to Meza’s presence in the area.
The general public’s worries were simple.
Meza staged a press conference to claim that he had experienced a substantial personal development during his time in prison in reaction to the growing criticism.
“There is nothing I can do to change my past, I can only tell you that in my heart, I know that I will not intentionally cause harm to anyone again,” Meza told reporters.